Photography Queries

[Milhouse]

Figured this area needs a sticky thread to ask questions about taking shots etc.

Went to drift practice on friday night and took some photos, found that the camera would struggle to find a focal point even in full light.

Tried changing modes but it would focus in then not give the "beep" to allow the shot to be taken.

Tried swapping lenses but had the same issue

Anyone else had this problem with a nikon ?

[cplagz]

Set focal point and turn off auto focus.

[DRKWRX]

AI Servo mode, the focus will keep tracking where your focal point is and wont beep just make sure your focus point is aimed where you want focus, this is what I use for tracking objects or just pre focus on a certain spot and shoot the cars at that spot.

[Magic]

You need to remember that if you've got it in auto mode, at a track there are a lot of items the camera thinks is the focal subject, the grass, signs, car. Because you're further away it doesn't know what you want to take the photo of.

AI servo is good but I prefer to use manual mode too, find a slow corner and you can set up some killer shots. throw it in manual mode and focus at a POI on the track. Should get some consistent photos throughout.

[DRKWRX]

yeah also another trick you can do is set focus to the af button on the back with canon anyways not sure with Nikons, So that button is doing the focusing and your shutter button is doing the metering when you take the shot, normally when you're half pressing your shutter the camera has taken the metering from where the car last was, so if the car has moved from shade to a light area it will overexpose, can take little bit of getting used too.

[Magic]

Yeah you can define AF point on any SLR I'm quite sure. It's just easier with likes of Canon 40D/50D etc because of the D-pad at the back. The equivalent to the 'AF-on' button on nikon is 'ae-l/af-l'. AE being auto exposure, AF being auto focus lock.

If your camera has live view you can usually throw it in that and then just use your cameras up down left right arrows to position the focal point too.

[Sfidz]

Hey,

looking and getting some lenses for a nikon D80.
Just starting with the whole photography stuff so excuse any "silly" questions.
want to do a fair bit of car photography so what lenses suit this best?

this is my "best" attempt with iFail camera.

http://i269.photobucket.com/albums/jj53/krispee88/IMG_0194_2_2-2.jpg

i am curious what kind of lens is required for a photo like the one below?

http://i269.photobucket.com/albums/jj53/krispee88/noriyaro_ebisu_south_16by9.jpg

Cheers,

[Magic]

That'd either be a fish-eye on a crop camera, like yours. Or a wide angle lens.

I shoot with a Canon 10-22mm USM wide angle at car shows and a zoom lens for long distance stuff but I've got nothing to show for the zoom side of things.

Although the main use for it is for landscapes, Wide angle is great to get close up angles while getting a broad field of viewlike the pic you showed and pics like this:
http://www.blaqmagicinnovations.com/files/1382_IMG_5672%20copy.jpg
http://www.blaqmagicinnovations.com/files/5438_20100116-MV24-5164.jpg

the downside is you can't get any depth (make things out of focus deliberately) like this:
http://www.blaqmagicinnovations.com/files/9999_r34sedan-WP.jpg